When I was in Australia & New Zealand recently, I was asked by Screen Hub journalist Andrew Einspruchto explain what I meant as the difference between Traditional Indie Film and my favorite phrase "Truly Free Film":

I think it is one of consistent evolution and transformation to some degree. I come from America, and that’s my perspective. In America, the process of indie film creation has always been, essentially, to write for the market, whether people really think it through or not. I think it interferes, or at least enters and influences, their work process.

We don’t have any state funding in America for cinema; there’s no subsidised system. So when a film is produced, it is often made with the intent that it will be sold to a buyer/distributor, and ideally one of the studio-controlled specialised division.Even in a film that is 100% private equity financed, those that create it tend to self-censor to some degree in an effort to make sure the film can sell to one of these well-capitalised entities.

Traditional indies had a fuzzy line, I think, in terms of what was determined as independent or not. It was mostly defined more as independent of spirit, being that of a singular, authorial voice, rather than one of a business term, of being fully privately financed or not.

Even still, whether they were financed by a studio or by a multi-national corporate division or whether they were 100% private equity, the film inevitably came out through one of these companies, or at least through one of their ancillary arms. The rights to film no longer resided with the filmmaking team – the artist or those that support them.

As a result, what has developed is a system in the States where it is really hard for the artists and the people that support them to really benefit from creating their work at an independent level. It might be promoted well, the creators might be enhanced, but it is very rare that they actually profit from that procedure, other than the initial sale.

For the 1990s and up until the early 2000s, sometimes that initial sale was quite profitable. But once the companies started to slim down, once the cost of marketing went up and up, and then certainly after 2008 and the world financial collapse, the world changed. That type of return on investment from an acquisition price no longer was at the same level. The filmmakers, the infrastructure that supported them, and the business structure did not truly adapt to a way that allowed artists and those that support them to eventually profit from them.

So when I draw a distinction between those that might develop their work independently and sometimes fund their work independently, but still be in a process where they surrender all their rights to a licensor of the film. It once would once be presumed that in exchange for that surrender, you would get a nice profit on your investment. Now frequently you see people surrendering those rights for a promise of future revenue, where the acquisition price is for a small fraction of the negative cost of the film. When I started in the business, frequently you would get 50% of your negative cost out of the US. And then it was still considered good if you could get 25%-30%. Now you see the acquisition price is frequently 10% to zero of the negative cost – yet still requiring a long-term licensing of the rights, like 10, 15, 30 years. And t would still involve a profit share very much based on those old models, sometimes only a small percentage of some of the ancillary rights.

So that’s what I mean when I talk about the traditional indies versus those who are “truly free”. Those are the artists, and the people who support them, who look at a model where they would retain ownership of their rights, or license it only on a short-term basis. Instead of looking at a surrender, they look toward how they can practice a much deeper engagement with their fan base, with their community. And they look at what benefits can come of that over the long term.

So instead of a model that leads to a one-off mentality – build it, then invent the wheel again, and then reinvent it after that, and then reinvent it one more time – instead of working that way, they work toward something that is more of an on-going conversation with their community – actually moving audience toward being community, seeking participation and trying to provide greater value than just entertainment or distraction.

With that, the scale might actually drop. Without the capital-intensive, mass market backing of these large, well-funded entities, you can’t hope for such a large return. But you can be sure of having a greater percentage of that return come to you. So modelling your film on a smaller scale, and not looking to a mass market, you’re not self-censoring and trying to write for a film that can be worthy of a multi-million dollar ad buy, and having to speak to everybody. Instead, you’re looking to speak perhaps to a smaller audience far more directly, resonantly, and deeply. With that is an opening up of subject matter, of stylistic experimentation, and a moving away from the dominance of the feature film form business model and one-off reinventing the wheel mentality. Instead, you are trying to find something that is far more sustainable and built precisely around that community engagement.

A big part of what goes into my overall thinking, is that time and time again you see artists, audiences and technology changing far faster than markets and industries can even hope to keep up with. That’s always an opportunity that’s there. But it’s very hard to bring things along because we build systems that want to survive. Those systems have a logic where they have to reward the status quo and change is really hard. Yet all those that create for it, consume it, appreciate it, and deliver it, have advanced beyond the utility of that industry or market.

That’s where we are now. And that’s what allowed me to get started and make 2/3 of the movies I’ve made in my career – just that ability to look at the American film system, really the international film system, and say, “Wait a second, it’s already changed, and you’re not changing with it.”

I had good fortune of moving to New York right when the American Independent Wave started. Directors like Spike Lee, the Cohen Brothers, Jim Jarmusch were all making their first features in New York when I arrived there. These films made their money, 100% of their costs, from international revenues. Yet their value was set solely from the privilege of having access to the largest consumption market in the world, the US. So it was perceived that they would be established there, and essentially have their marketing launch from there. But at that time, there was only one company, Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax, that had a business model that was made to exploit that.

The cost of entry to doing that was relatively small, and I was able to build my first company, Good Machine, predicated on that notion, that with the presumption of an American release, we would be able to cover 100% of our costs of an auteur-driven cinema from the international marketplace. And so we had to listen to what those audiences wanted, and design our films for that, and in exchange, we were able to fund our movies with virtually no capital of own to put into it.

I think we are at a very similar moment of transformation, where that gap between the evolution of audiences, technology and artists has far surpassed the market and industry again. It is up to those who are flexible and nimble to point their way to new business models that can fund a whole new wave of creativity.

It’s exciting. But there are still a lot of problems, bridges and ramps that need to be built to give the creative community the courage to step over these new waters, but that gap between what needs to be done, and somebody’s desire and willingness to do it is a really creative field that is normally referred to as “business”. There’s lots of opportunity there than can really open the way for lots of interesting work.

This is the first question in an interview that I did with Andrew Einspruch for ScreenHub. If you are a member of that organization you can read the whole thing here.

Screen Hub is "The daily online newspaper for Australian film and television professionals." Their web site for the link is http://www.screenhub.com.au.

SF Film Society Blog

We announce the full program of the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival tomorrow morning! So many exciting films, programs & special events to share with you all. Something for everyone this Fest! Parents, look out for our Short 5: Family Films program. This annual collection of shorts — one of the most popular programs at #SFIFF — is sure to please the smallest members of your family as well as the young at heart and everyone in between. A variety of incredible storytellers & animators have attended this program in years past, including #MoonbotStudios, #JonKlassen, #BillPlympton, #MoWillems, #AardmanAnimations,#WestonWoods and some of the current greats at #Pixar. After films screen, we host Q&As and meet-and-greets, where you’ll have the opportunity to chat with filmmaker guests, and maybe even catch an autograph or two. Pictured below is #RobertKondo — a director of the Academy Award-nominated film #TheDamKeeper — signing the shoe of a fan at this program at SFIFF57. Stay tuned: this year’s (knockout) lineup will be released tomorrow with the rest of the Fest!

We are stoked to present NightLife @calacademy on April 2! Evening highlights include a special screening of Oscar nom'd short #TheDamKeeper with a live drawing demo from one of the film's directors; a Q&A with the minds behind Google Advanced Technology Projects and Spotlight Stories; and an exclusive clips presentation from #Advantageous, a sci-fi #Sundance prize-winner from Bay Area filmmaker Jennifer Phang, who will stick around to talk special effects after the screening. & If you feel the need to shake loose at any point, dip out into Cal Academy's gorgeous piazza and get down at our Silent Disco, featuring synthy and riffy jams from some of your favorite 70s & 80s film soundtracks. Visit bit.ly/SFIFFlife for tickets & more! Photo by Lizzy Brooks.

We are excited to announce the Opening, Centerpiece and Closing films at the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival! This year, #AlexGibney's intelligent and insightful doc #SteveJobs: The Man in the Machine will kick off the program; #TheEndOfTheTour, a biographical drama following literary giant #DavidFosterWallace, will play as #SFIFF's Centerpiece film; and #Experimenter, in which #PeterSarsgaard gives a stellar performance as controversial social scientist Stanley Milgram will close out the Fest. Tickets to all three films are on sale to #SFFSmembers now, public onsale begins noon Friday (3/27). Full info at sffs.org.

#TBT: About 20 years ago, soon-to-be sci-fi & fantasy legend #GuillermoDelToro attended the San Francisco International Festival will his very first feature film, #Cronos, a vampire horror set in 16th century Mexico. He has done much work since SFIFF37, becoming a major player in both commercial and indie camps, with films ranging from the magical #PansLabyrinth to the spectacular #PacificRim. We are so pleased to announce that del Toro will be the recipient of this year's Irving M. Levin Directing Award. Catch him at the #CastroTheatre on April 25 to hear him discuss his career, to see clips from both old and new work and to watch one of his best-loved films, #TheDevilsBackbone. Tickets on sale to #SFFSmembers now, public onsale begins noon March 21. Full info at sffs.org.

#Regram from @ross_bros. Stoked that these guys won the Louis Black “Lone Star” Award at #SXSW for their film #Western. Congrats to the filmmakers and crew behind this stunning production. Proud that this doc is one that #SFFSsupports!

Don't call him Ricky — at least, not if you expect him to answer. The recipient of this year's Peter J. Owens Award is none other than screen legend #RichardGere. We are so excited to honor this prolific actor with one of the Festival's most prestigious prizes. Gere will host an evening at the #CastroTheatre, where he will discuss his career and screen his new film #TimeOutOfMind, a stunning, observational portrait of a man who must cope with homelessness in contemporary New York. Tickets on sale to #SFFSmembers now. Public onsale begins noon March 19. Visit sffs.org to purchase or for full details.

Each year at the Festival, we honor an actor whose career exemplifies independence & integrity with #SFIFF's Peter J. Owens Award. Recipients of this esteemed prize include screen legends #DustinHoffman, #HarrisonFord and #WinonaRyder (pictured). When Ryder was recognized back in 2000, we screened #TheAgeOfInnocence, a film for which she earned an Academy Award under Martin Scorsese's direction. We will be announcing this year's awardee early next week. Until then, enjoy this #TBT!

Don't walk, RUN: earlybird #SFIFF ticket packages are now on sale, and we just announced this year's slate of feature-length competition films! Golden Gate Award nominees this Fest hail from almost 20 countries across the globe and are in contention for nearly $40k in prizes. Get to know these remarkable films before we release the rest of the Fest and snag discounted tickets at sffs.org. Pictured: Run, a narrative film from the Ivory Coast & France up for the New Directors Prize at SFIFF58.

Missed it last #SFIFF? We've collected as many streaming links as we could dig up for films from last year's Festival. Start a SFIFF57 movie marathon while you wait for us to release the full SFIFF58 lineup on March 31. You've got 21 days and more than 40 films to choose from (including the gorgeously filmed #Tracks, starring #MiaWasikowska, pictured). Make your way to blog.sffs.org/watch – a simpler trek than one across the Australian Outback.

Thrilled to announce that #MirandaJuly will be bringing #NewSociety, her latest performance project, to #SFIFF audiences April 28 & 29. Hilarious and moving, this experiment in theatrical collaboration chronicles the ways societies emerge, transform, decay and persist over time. Like July's other projects, New Society blurs boundaries between fiction and reality, and audience and performer. So excited to present this event in collaboration with #SFMOMA; tickets on sale NOW to our members & theirs at sffs.org. Photo by #PamelaGentile. #SFFSmembers

In anticipation of this Friday's release of Boyhood with the filmmaker returning to SF for a round of Q&As, watch the onstage interview with Richard Linklater and Parker Posey and Boyhood Q&A from An Evening with Richard Linklater at the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival!

The San Francisco Film Society wrapped its 57th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 24–May 8) with 263 screenings of 168 films from 56 countries, which were attended by over 300 filmmakers and industry guests from over 20 countries. Over 15 days, SFIFF57 showed 74 narrative features, 29 documentary features and a total of 65 short films. See all the highlights and photo galleries!

Last night, the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival announced the winners of the juried Golden Gate Award and New Directors Prize competitionsat an event held at Rouge | Nick’s Crispy Tacos. This year the Festival awarded nearly $40,000 in prizes to emerging and established filmmakers from 13 countries around the globe!